It's just bad, really bad. I have tried my best to give Lemmy a chance, but I just can't do it. There's nothing on there that's worth my time. I have a lot of big problems with Lemmy, but nothing compares to the issues the content, community, and mods.

Content:

Let's start with content, my biggest problem with the platform is that it's just dead. The platform lacks all the communities big and small about everything else that makes Reddit worth using. There are no communities for games or music or sports or hobbies or movies or anything. Politics and memes are the only things that get actively posted, and even these are worse than they sound.

The politics is always either extremely far left (like full blown Marxists who cheer on dictators, support terrorism, endorse violence, and call for genocide) or it's toxic American hyperpartisan brain rot like you would see on /r/politics, there's nothing else on there in this regard. The memes aren't any better. Most of them aren't trying to be funny, but rather push some sort of agenda (think /r/PoliticalHumor) which just makes them annoying. For the very few that do aim to be funny, they're usually really bad memes from a decade ago that will make you roll your eyes (example).

Community:

The community is extremely hostile and sensitive. It's like everybody there has a stick up their ass. The community has very specific views on everything, and if you deviate from them, they will come at you like a pack of starving hyenas. Dislike a movie they like? You're just an idiot who doesn't get it. Disagree with an unhinged political view they endorse? You're a terrible person who doesn't deserve to live. God forbid you criticize their holy platform on anything (even if it's just wanting to have the comments load reliably), they will call you names and send you death wishes.

There's also this insufferably smug, holier than thou attitude that you will find everywhere. They're too stubborn to ever compromise, let alone admit they're wrong (it doesn't matter how right you are). They're arrogant enough to view themselves as superior and everybody else as an idiot that needs to be talked down to. They're extremely pretentious and think that using Lemmy makes them enlightened intellectuals. Reading this, you would think that I'm going there and intentionally pissing them off, but no, this is how they interact amongst themselves.

Mods:

Mods on there aren't any better than Reddit, in fact, they're worse. Lemmy has the same exact setup as Reddit but with even less accountability and a more unhinged community. The mods there ban literally anything they don't like, interacting with them is a waste of time because they all think they're Gods.

At first you would think it's just one annoying mod who is being unreasonable for banning for mentioning that you don't like Linux, but after you interact with a bunch of them who all have the same mentality, you just realize that this platform is just not worth your time. I have three active accounts that are all around a year old on three different instances with vastly different interests and interactions, and I just ran into the same problem again and again.

Conclusion:

If you have a very narrow worldview, politics is your entire personality, and you enjoy dry, charged humor then I guess Lemmy is a good alternative for you, but if you're anybody else it's not worth it. Reddit is not good, everybody here agrees. However, despite it's numerous flaws it's still a product than Lemmy at it's very best. It's simply not a viable alternative imo. Even Instagram and Tiktok are better alternatives than Lemmy.